Thursday, February 23, 2006

Goaltending clinic

One of the many hats I wear is as an Off-Ice Official for the NAHL Texas Tornado. The Tornado are the NAHL champions two years running, and have been in first place for most of this year. Last night, they played the Texarkana Bandits, who were just one point behind in the standings. And Bandits goalie Riley Gill decided to hold a goaltending clinic. 47 shots. 46 saves. 2-1 victory. First place over the Tornado. And these were not 47 shots from the blueline, from bad angles, harmless wristers and the like. These were quality scoring chances - hard slap shots, tips in front, second chances on the few rebounds he put out there. Troy Redmann was equally impressive at the other end. While he did not face as many shots (just 21), he made some incredible stops to keep it close.

My father-in-law was at the game, and remarked, "I haven't seen a peppering like this since Dick Cheney went hunting!" [aside]

It was, for me, the most entertaining game of the season. This is why I volunteer to work the games. It was 60 minutes of end-to-end action. Different goalies, and the score might have been 7-4, but last night belonged to Gill.

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